GTA Offering Black Heritage Tour Bus Rides

Greensboro Transit Authority has made one of it's buses a moving black history month tour.

Author:
WFMY News 2

Published:
6:40 PM EST February 5, 2018

Updated:
6:40 PM EST February 5, 2018

GREENSBORO, NC -- Greensboro Transit Authority is recognizing Black History Month with the GTA Black History Heritage Ride. The custom decaled bus will familiarize riders and the general community with the accomplishments and contributions made by African-Americans and their advocates for our city, nation and world. The outside of the bus has decals of the Tuskegee Airmen on one side and African-American NASCAR driver Wendell Scott on the other. Once aboard, commuters will be surrounded by pictures and stories of people, places and moments in Black History made possible by African-Americans and others who gave their tireless and sacrificial support.

"When we launched this project in 2017, the community support was overwhelming," said Kevin Elwood, Marketing and Communications Manager. "The powerful displays of diversity in Black History made us popular with many group leaders including teachers who considered it a part of their Black History Month curriculum. As we continued to get requests even after the month had ended, we knew we had hit upon something valuable that should be repeated."

The bus will rotate among GTA's regular routes seven days a week. You can track it with the live GTA Transloc bus tracker by clicking here. Look for bus number 777-HR. Also, GTA will send periodic updates on the bus route of the day on its Twitter feed @gtaheat.

In addition to experiencing the Heritage Ride displays during normal operating service, the bus is available at no charge to schools, community centers and other groups who wish to request a special visit. Children in grades K-8 can board the bus to view the images and take a brief ride as they learn about public transportation and how it has played a strategic role in civil rights by the actions of Rosa Parks, Edward Greenlee, Charlotte Hawkins Brown and others. The public can submit visit requests on the GTA website.